Plant-based mac & cheeze: ready-made, boxed or sauce from the fridge?

A bowl of mac & cheeze can involve very little cooking, a saucepan and a box, or a bit of making it your own. Those are three quite different dinners, even when they all end with creamy pasta.

Our plant-based range includes prepared dishes from Halifax’s Real Fake Meats, boxed pasta-and-sauce kits from GoGo Quinoa and Annie’s, and a refrigerated sauce from Le Grand. Here’s what each brings to the table, plus two complete ways to turn the pantry and fridge versions into supper.

• Least hands-on work: a prepared Real Fake Meats dish, ready for reheating.
• Pasta and seasoning together: GoGo or Annie’s, with the liquid added at home.
• Your own pasta and additions: Le Grand’s ready-made sauce.

Is there a mac & cheeze made in Halifax?

Real Fake Meats makes plant-based meats and cheezes by hand in Halifax’s North End. That local kitchen is part of what makes these prepared dishes worth knowing about: someone has already made the sauce, cooked the pasta and brought the meal together.

Real Fake Meats Mac & Cheeze takes the classic macaroni route. Cashew cheeze is a signature of the maker’s mac. White Cheddah Penne is the white-sauce direction, with broccoli and penne rather than elbows. RFM’s kitchen works with nuts, wheat and soy, among other allergens, so plant-based doesn’t mean allergen-free.

These are refrigerated prepared meals, not dried kits. Keep them cold and use the heating directions on the container, including the correct oven-safe or microwave-safe dish. For reheating, the centre of the meal should reach 74°C.

A crisp side gives creamy pasta a nice contrast. For two people, toss 2 cups of finely sliced cabbage and 1 grated carrot with 1 tablespoon each of olive oil and lemon juice, plus a little salt and pepper. Make it while the pasta heats, then serve alongside.

The boxed route: similar job, different pasta

GoGo Quinoa Mac & Vegan Cheese contains rice-and-quinoa elbows and a seasoning blend built around nutritional yeast, sorghum flour and tapioca starch. Garlic is in the mix, and annatto supplies the orange colour. Its White Shells & Vegan Cheese has rice-and-quinoa shells and a similar nutritional-yeast seasoning without annatto in the maker’s ingredient list. Both are made in Canada and certified gluten-free by the maker.

Annie’s Vegan Mac, Cheddar Flavor uses wheat pasta. Its sauce seasoning takes another route, including rice syrup solids, palm oil, corn starch and pea protein. So “vegan mac” tells you about the absence of animal ingredients, not whether the pasta is gluten-free or whether every sauce has the same base.

With a boxed kit, the pasta and seasoning are measured to go together. You cook and drain the pasta, then bring the sauce together with the added liquid. Plain, unsweetened plant milk keeps the sauce savoury; vanilla belongs in another dinner. Use the liquid amount for the particular box, because the GoGo and Annie’s seasoning mixes aren’t identical.

Broccoli-and-pea mac for two

Allow about 20–25 minutes. This version uses one 170 g box of Annie’s Vegan Mac, ⅓ cup plain unsweetened plant milk, 2 cups small fresh broccoli florets, ½ cup frozen peas and black pepper. It makes two light main-dish portions.

1. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the macaroni and cook for 8–10 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.
2. Meanwhile, steam the broccoli in a separate covered pan over simmering water for about 5–7 minutes, until tender. Cook the frozen peas as their package directs, then drain both vegetables well.
3. Drain the pasta. In the warm saucepan over low heat, stir the seasoning into the ⅓ cup plant milk until smooth and thickened. Return the pasta, fold in the hot vegetables and add pepper.
4. If the sauce tightens as you stir, add another tablespoon of plant milk. Serve straight away.

For a richer sauce, the box suggests an optional 2 tablespoons of plant-based buttery spread. The ⅓-cup liquid amount is also used in this vegan mac recipe. For GoGo elbows or shells, the same cooked vegetables work; use that box’s sauce-liquid amount instead.

Le Grand: the sauce is made, the pasta is yours

Le Grand Original Mac ’N Cheeze Sauce comes in a refrigerated pouch. The Quebec-made sauce contains cashews, potatoes, carrots and nutritional yeast, with other ingredients including pea protein and rice starch. It contains cashews, and it gives you a completely different starting point from a dry seasoning packet.

Here, you control the pasta shape and the amount of vegetables or beans. Elbows make a familiar mac; shells tuck sauce into their centres; penne is handy when you’re adding larger pieces of broccoli. The sauce can also go over cooked vegetables or nachos, so the pouch doesn’t have to be a pasta-only purchase.

Smoky tomato-and-lentil mac

Serves 4 · Allow about 25 minutes. Inspired by a macaroni recipe with plant-based “meat”, this stovetop variation uses cooked lentils.

You’ll need 350 g dry macaroni, one 227 g pouch Le Grand Original sauce, 200 g canned lentils (drained and rinsed), 200 g canned diced tomatoes (drained), 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 chopped garlic clove and ½ teaspoon smoked paprika.

1. Cook the macaroni using its package method. Reserve a little hot cooking water, then drain.
2. While it cooks, heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Stir the garlic for 30 seconds. Add lentils, tomatoes and smoked paprika; cook, stirring, until hot throughout, about 4–5 minutes.
3. Lower the heat. Add the sauce and cooked pasta, stirring gently until everything is hot. Loosen with a tablespoon or two of reserved water if needed, then serve.

How do you keep vegan mac and cheese creamy?

Lumps in a powdered sauce? Mix the seasoning thoroughly into its liquid before returning the pasta. It’s much harder to whisk out a dry pocket once the saucepan is full of elbows.

A watery bowl? Drain vegetables before adding them. Frozen vegetables can bring extra water into a sauce; cooking them separately gives you control without keeping the pasta on the heat longer.

Leftovers looking thick? Add a small splash of water or unsweetened plant milk as you reheat. Refrigerate cooked leftovers promptly in shallow containers, eat within 2–3 days or freeze, and reheat to 74°C. The same leftover-storage guidance applies here too. An unopened chilled meal or sauce follows its own storage label and date.

Our refrigerated Real Fake Meats meals and Le Grand sauce are for local delivery or in-store shopping. Eligible pantry products can ship more widely. Come see us at 486 Starboard Drive in Bedford or 590 Portland Street in Dartmouth, or explore our quick and easy meals. We’d be happy to help you find your kind of mac night.